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The cost of prescriptionsWITH SAVINGS of at least €1 billion required by the Department of Health in next month’s budget, it was not surprising to see Minister for Health Mary Harney raise the issue on a few occasions recently. What was unexpected was her specific mention of a prescription charge to be paid by medical card holders for hitherto free drugs; with a relatively paltry possible savings return in the region of €25 million, it would seem to risk alienating an already sensitised sector for little monetary gain.
Sleight of handTHE BITTER disappointment on Wednesday night was all the greater because the Irish football team had risen to the occasion like never before. The match aftermath has seen an uncontrollable rage across the airwaves and internet that suggests Ireland has lost all sense of proportion, but recall Bill Shankly’s joking insistence that while “some people think football is a matter of life and death ... I can assure them it is much more serious than that”. Thierry Henry has dishonoured himself. Football may be just a game but it reverbates in peoples’ ordinary lives throughout the world.

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Any soccer pro would have done the sameHey, get over it! We’d have scored that way too given the chance... writes BRIAN O'CONNOR

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